Grandcourt, Mr. Henleigh Mallinger

Sir Hugo Mallinger's nephew and presumptive heir; a cold, selfish, immovable man, who has worn out all gratifications except that of bending others to his will. "Grandcourt could hardly have been more unlike all her imaginary portraits of him. He was slightly taller than herself, and their eyes seemed to be on a level; there was not the faintest smile on his face as he looked at her, not a trace of self-consciousness or anxiety in his bearing ; when he raised his hat he showed an extensive baldness surrounded with a mere fringe of reddishblond hair, but he also showed a perfect hand; the line of feature from brow to chin undisguised by beard was decidedly handsome, with only moderate departures from the perpendicular, and the slight whisker, too, was per pendicular. It was not possible for a human aspect to be freer from grimace or solicitous wrigglings; also it was perhaps not possible for a breathing man wide awake to look less animated. . . . His complexion had a faded fairness resembling that of an actress when bare of the artificial white and red; his long narrow grey eyes expressed nothing but indifference." Although possessed of large estates, he has spent so freely on his pleasures that he feels some need of ready money. Some years before, he had run away with the beautiful and dashing Mrs. Glasher and his passion for her had been the strongest of which he was capable, although it had not induced him to marry her when her husband's death finally left her free. He comes to Diplow with some idea of courting the rich Miss Arrowpoint, but is attracted by Gwendolen Harleth's beauty and independence, and, led on by the fact that she holds him off and even goes away to escape his attentions, makes up his mind to marry her. For a while he feels as much liking for her as his worn-out nature permits, but her attitude toward Deronda, innocent though it is, arouses his jealousy and he determines to break her spirit and bend her to his idea of what his wife should be, heedless of the hatred which this arouses in her. He is drowned in the Mediterranean, on a boating trip which he had forced her into taking, and leaves a will which gives his estates to his illegitimate son by Mrs. Glasher and a mere pittance to Gwendolen.

<em>Daniel Deronda</em>

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